


Remus Takes Care of Sirius After he Runs Away

by simplysirius



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Muggle, Angst, Angst and Feels, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Heavy Angst, M/M, Muggle AU, One Shot, Pining, Relationship(s), Remus x Sirius, sirius x remus, wolfstar, wolfstar angst, wolfstar fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 22:15:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28677993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simplysirius/pseuds/simplysirius
Summary: Sirius shows up on Remus’ doorstep in London when he decides to run away, and realizes that maybe he does have a home after all. A muggle AU, based off the song There is a Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 1
Kudos: 88





	Remus Takes Care of Sirius After he Runs Away

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on Tumblr @simplysirius for daily fics and fanart! I also take requests :)

“Can you do me a favor?”

“That depends.”

“Can you open your door?”

Remus sat up at his desk a little straighter, his eyebrows drawing together. He glanced at the phone in his hands, listening to Sirius quietly breathe on the other line. “What are you talking about?”

Sirius swallowed and cleared his throat nervously. “Look out your window.”

Scrambling up from his chair so quickly his papers crashed to the ground, Remus moved aside the curtains hanging over his window, peering out through the dirty glass. The quiet little London street looked the same, the streetlights reflecting in the puddles on the wet pavement, but then there was a figure standing on his doorstep, looking up at him with a sad smile.

Remus wasted no time in throwing his phone on his bed and crashing down the stairs, nearly breaking his leg as he stumbled towards the door.

“Hi,” Sirius said sheepishly, rocking on the balls of his feet.

“Hi,” Remus replied cautiously, eyes narrowing in on the duffle bag hanging off his shoulder, stuffed with so many things the zipper hardly closed. “What’s going on?”

Sirius shrugged, nerves settling in the creases on his face. “Just thought maybe you wanted to hang out?”

“At ten o’clock at night?”

“Yeah.” 

There was more to the story – entire chapters missing – but Remus didn’t press further. Not yet. He stepped back and welcomed Sirius inside, wishing he had time to straighten the pillows on the couch and clear the coffee table of the last week’s tea cups.

Sirius had visited Remus’ flat plenty of times before – he’d eaten dinner with his parents and played with his cat and made tea when Remus had the flu last year – but this was different. This was looking at a home, at the photos hanging on the wall of a smiling, happy family, and realizing he was suddenly surrounded by things he didn’t have anymore. It wasn’t supposed to hurt this bad. He wasn’t supposed to be sad; certainly not on the brink of tears just thinking about it.

“What’s going on?” Remus asked again, startling Sirius out of his reflection. Even with just the hall light on, he could see the ache clouding Sirius’ stormy eyes.

Sirius took his lip harshly between his teeth and his hands wrung the strap of his duffle bag. “I might need a place to stay for a night.” Before he was even finished, Remus was nodding. “Maybe a couple nights. If that’s okay. I can go somewhere else though, I don’t want to intrude or anything-”

Remus let his hand rest on Sirius’ elbow, immediately silencing him. “Of course. But, I mean…is everything okay?”

Shifting uneasily, Sirius tried to shrug off Remus’ concern, but it lingered heavy in the air. “Just some things at home, you know?”

“Sirius, she didn’t–?”

“You want to go out? Get a drink or something? I’ll pay.” Sirius dug in his bag for his wallet, sifting through wadded up shirts and a frayed toothbrush. He held up a crisp ten pound note in between his fingers, wiggling his eyebrows. There wasn’t even any time for his cheeks to flush from his word choice.

Remus’ mouth sank into a hard line, not believing Sirius’ façade for a second, but seeing the desperation shining in his irises. He retrieved the keys to his father’s beat-up sedan off the peg in the kitchen and nodded. “I know a good place.”

It was the middle of January, but Sirius insisted on driving with the windows down, resting his head on the car door as the wind whipped his hair around and slashed his face. From the driver’s side, Remus couldn’t tell if it was the icy sting of the wind prompting cold tears from the corners of his eyes or something more bitter, but he continued driving with his nose buried in his scarf.

Expertly weaving his way through downtown London, Remus found a parking spot on the side of the street in front of the lively pub with fairy lights hanging from the rafters and lively music spilling out the cracks in the door. He stepped out of his car without thinking to wait for Sirius, surprised when he was halfway to the door alone.

“Are you coming?” Remus asked, glancing back at Sirius, still sitting in the car.

Sirius jumped out, running across the street and narrowly avoiding a passing red bus. “Yeah, sorry.”

They found a table in the back of the pub, as far away from the dancing strangers and screaming fiddle as possible, each with a mug of frothing beer in front of them. The waitress had delivered the pints minutes ago, but Sirius had yet to touch his, and he hadn’t even smiled when she complimented his hair.

“Please tell me what’s going on now,” Remus begged. The time for dancing around each other had long since passed. He couldn’t stand to look at Sirius for another second, not with the way his shoulders slumped and his lip quivered every now and then, as if he was about to break into a puddle of tears any second now.

“I had to get away,” Sirius admitted quietly. “I just can’t stay there anymore. She’s awful, Remus. I’m not going back.”

Remus reached across the table and let his fingers graze Sirius’ hand, hot embers igniting where their skin touched. He wanted to wrap his arms around Sirius and squeeze him until everything fell back into place, but for now, this would have to do. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I knew you’d look at me like you are right now. Like I’m just this poor kid without a home and nowhere to go. Like I’m broken.” Sirius couldn’t bring his eyes to look at Remus. He stared into his beer, watching the bubbles fizz and pop, trying to find an absolution in the amber liquid.

“You aren’t broken,” Remus insisted, struggling to let his voice be heard over the rumble of the crowd, trying not to break. “You’re frayed and rough around the edges and perfect.”

Sirius shook his head. “Remus–”

“And you’re wrong about another thing, too. You have somewhere to go. You’re living with me.”

“I can’t do that.”

“You can, and you are. I’m not leaving you on the streets.” Remus refused. He would not let Sirius spend a single night alone in an alley or sleeping in a dark corner in the school library. “We’ll be graduating in a few months. After that…we can get our own place. We’ll live together. We’ll figure this out.”

Sirius’ eyes finally lifted from the table and met Remus’ with a fresh round of tears clinging onto his long lashes. He curled his lips around his teeth and fumbled with his fingers in his lap, his chest exploding with a new kind of warmth that wasn’t from the sweaty bodies dancing closer or the vent on the wall. “You would do that? For me?”

“Of course,” Remus nodded with intense certainty. “I’d do anything for you.”

It was true. Remus would steal the stars for Sirius, if that’s what it took to make him happy. From the moment they had met in the library that fateful day in year nine, Remus with his stack of books falling out of his arms, Sirius trying not to laugh as he helped clean up the mess, he knew that there was something about Sirius so mystifying and otherworldly that he had no choice but to intertwine their lives together. It was only now, staring at Sirius across the table, his hair falling in tangled rivulets over his head, a delicate smile etched onto his lips, their hands still placed over one another, that Remus realized, just maybe, he didn’t want to let go.

“Thank you,” Sirius whispered, his voice lost in the hum of the music.

Remus stood up from the table and slipped his coat over his shoulders. “C’mon. Let’s get out of here.” There were too many people and it was so loud; he wanted Sirius alone and all to himself.

Sirius nodded, swishing around his still-full mug of beer. Getting drunk wouldn’t numb the ache pounding against his ribcage. Remus might, though.

When they got to the car, Sirius rolled the window down again, breathing in the crisp air. There was the typical city smell – some rotting garbage and stale smoke – but there was something new, too. It was sweet, a little bit like honey, and filled Sirius lungs with a newfound sense of hope.

“Are you good?”

Sirius glanced over at Remus, bathed in pale white light from the nearby streetlamp. It cast harsh shadows over his face, the scar stretching across his cheek on full display, threatening to make him look like a dangerous creature. But he wasn’t dangerous at all. He was Remus. And the world shone brighter because he was in it. Even when Sirius felt like he was slipping into the darkness, Remus was right there, illuminating his way back to safety. And safety, Sirius knew, was the feel of Remus’ hand in his.

“Can we just drive around for a while?” He asked. “Take the long way back?”

“Sure,” Remus said, shifting the car into drive. He peeled out into the street and turned this way and that, following the curve of the city, even when it took them farther and farther from home.

They passed through narrow streets, just barely scraping past the big red busses and trucks that were just inches away from crushing them. A few hours ago, it wouldn’t have seemed like such a bad option to Sirius. But now, sitting next to Remus, with the breeze ruffling his curls and kissing his cheeks, he couldn’t miss this. He wouldn’t give this up.

Up ahead lay the entrance to a long tunnel that buried under the River Thames, the lights dim without many cars on the road. As they drove through, the car became bathed in a dull gray, almost so dark that Sirius couldn’t see Remus’ face.

He could do it. Tell Remus the real reason why he was the only person he wanted to help him deal with this. He didn’t want to show up at James’ house or bother Lily’s parents. He wanted Remus. Only Remus. Because he couldn’t help but want to lay in the arms of the boy he loved.

The words formed on his tongue but couldn’t slip past his clenched jaw. Instead, Sirius reached over and peeled Remus’ hand off the gear shift, sliding their fingers together. Remus startled at his cold skin, but held on tightly.

Even as the tunnel opened up and they were flying on the open freeway, their hands remained cemented together, and when they returned home, slipping upstairs and into bed, Sirius nestled into Remus’ chest. Concealed in darkness, Sirius mouthed those three words, that sacred promise that he so desperately wanted to give Remus.

Remus pressed a tentative kiss to his hair and closed his eyes, knowing that his thrashing heart would make sleep difficult tonight, but that he had tomorrow night with Sirius, and the next and the next and the next. He would find the right words eventually.

They would figure this out together.


End file.
